Using all the wiggle room he could to take us to the big dance

A READER suggested on Tuesday that Andrew Redmayne’s antics weren’t far removed from Trevor Chappell’s infamous underarm delivery. A bit harsh there, old mate. Redmayne had the right to flap and flop around like a balloon man in the wind.

He was treading a fine line in more ways than one – but there’s sufficient wiggle room in the rules for this sort of stuff.

The gamesmanship was undoubted but Redmayne was free to do all his mucking around because he was complying with football’s Law 14.

Which states: “The defending goalkeeper must remain on the goal line, facing the kicker, between the goalposts, without touching the goalposts, crossbar or goal net, until the ball has been kicked. When the ball is kicked, the defending goalkeeper must have at least part of one foot touching, or in line with, the goal line.”

Nothing in Law 14 about the Hot Potato, Cold Spaghetti or Mashed Banana being prohibited, so Redmayne was good to go. He could have stuck out his tongue and blown raspberries if he had a foot on the line.

Goalkeepers are all a bit different – think wicketkeepers and halfbacks – and his songand-dance routine to launch the Socceroos into the World Cup ended with a Stephen Bradbury-style reaction of disbelief and delirium. He’ll take a similarly unlikely place in Australian sporting lore.

The song-and-dance man vindicated the bravest damn call of coach Graham Arnold’s career. Off with the captain, Matty Ryan, after 120 minutes of regulation and extra time, and on with Redmayne.

He ran on to the field with a smirk on his face, like he knew something pretty entertaining was coming. He dived to the right, stopped Alex Valera’s hooked ball, pulled a face for Polly. He saved the penalty, and Arnold’s career, to complete a 1008-day qualification program that came down to the blink of an eye.

In the end, their qualification was remarkable, resilient, gutsy, thrilling. Arnold’s only failure was having his request for a public holiday fall on deaf ears.

“I called out Anthony Albanese the other day to give everyone a day off to celebrate this because I believe this is one of the greatest achievements ever, to qualify for this World Cup, the way we had to do things,” Arnold said.

“It’s been tough, but we did it. I’m quite speechless because no one in Australia gave us a chance.”